Wednesday January 25, 2006 8:13 pm

Opera Mini - Official Release

For those of you who can’t bear to be separated from the Internet, Opera has released the official version of their browser designed for smartphones - Opera Mini. Mini has been in beta testing in Europe for some time, and in December was released to the rest of the world’s software guinea pigs. Unlike Internet Explorer, which ships with most smartphones, or Opera’s other browser for the mobile market, Opera Mobile, this new browser relies on Opera’s backend servers. The servers convert the website requested into a format better suited for a phone’s tiny screen, and compress the graphics and other data so the page loads more quickly. Testing by this author on a Cingular 2125 confirms that pages load much faster than IE and are easier to navigate as well. Opera Mini has a handful of phones it is “certified” to work on, but should work on any Java-equipped smartphone. Two versions are available - a Basic edition with a small memory footprint, and an Advanced version that consumes more memory but delivers page icons, font options, better-looking menus, and smoother scrolling.